Doctor Who Collectors Wiki:Wiki Redesign
I'll start things off. The main idea is to drop useage of the 'Box style' templates and replace them with a different format. All we need to do is work out what this new format shall be. This page is for us to have a 'group discussion' as it were so we can all come up with a format we're happy with before we change it over. So if you have any ideas then please share them. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 10:34, September 26, 2018 (UTC) I have made a first attempt at a replacement of the box template, see my Sandbox. I must stress this is very much a work in progress and will probably not be what we use. It's a test to see if we can have a three column infobox that looks similar to the box templates, seeing as I believe we all like the aesthetics of said box template. Using an infobox should solve the problem of our pages not appearing on Google search results, however I do not believe the template I have made is that simple to use, and the code is a bit messy. Let me know what you think. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 16:22, September 26, 2018 (UTC) I think it's a great start. I don't think this has been mentioned before, but both the box templates and the navboxes were most affective when viewed as part of a wider page (1010px instead of 704px). This is against wikia's regulations so to get around that me and a couple of other users all had our own css code to widen the pages to 1010px. If there are no objections I could reformat the navboxes to fit the slimmer 704px so that when we design the new templates the whole wiki can work within the standard article width? Lego Whovian (talk) 17:21, September 26, 2018 (UTC) Most modern comics have multiple variant covers. How would we handle all the different covers? Would they all still have their own page? Would we still be "cascading" pages? RAIDERCLEM (talk) This is an issue I was going to bring up. Each variant, e.g a comic cover or book edition, would now require it's own page, rather than using the tab view method employed by the box templates. What I thought we could do is create a master page for an item, similiar to what someone did to the Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks page years ago, giving links to all the various edition, which would now have their own page. Would you both be happy with a format like that? Also I think all the templates and navboxes should be made to fit in the standard page width, seeing as 99% of people visiting the wiki would be viewing the Wiki like that. I have also added a second test to my sandbox; this time it is a standard infobox, like the format we used before the 'box templates'. Personally I prefer this to my triple column test. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 07:28, September 27, 2018 (UTC) I also prefer the standard infobox to the triple column test; though possibly it could be made wider to fit the entire page width and all the information be stored in the different rows and columns? Lego Whovian (talk) 16:13, September 28, 2018 (UTC) Do you mean something like this? Here is what the page would look like with the template. I just cobbled this together in a few minutes so could improve it if needed. I'm not sure if you've seen but this is an example of a page using the standard infobox. Persoanlly I think I prefer the standard infobox page, rather then the wider variety, something about it appeals to me, I think it's got a simple clean look to it. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 07:46, September 29, 2018 (UTC) The only problem I have with the infobox page is that is doesn't seem to be wide enough to fit in any individual episode titles, yet alone long ones, see Test infobox page 2 which I made, and check the episodes section of the template. Lego Whovian (talk) 10:21, October 2, 2018 (UTC) I see what you mean, that hadn't occured to me. I have updated the first test page with a slightly wider infobox (by only 5px), I also edited the episodes section slightly, giving a link to the overall serial, followed by links to the individual episodes, with the display text shortened to just the part number, allowing it all to fit. What do you think of that? The Greatest Show isn't displyed in one line even in the new box templates, so if that's the longest serial title then I think this system should be ok. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 12:56, October 2, 2018 (UTC) So where do we stand going forward? Are we all happy to continue with one of the infobox style templates, or do we think they are not suitable? I'm happy to do further work on them if that's the way forward we want to take, I think on the whole they work quite well, but I don't want to push us a way no one else is happy with. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 08:40, October 4, 2018 (UTC) I've just made a quick adjustment to the first test page, and as you can see I've made the text small for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy to fit on one line. Would you be OK with making the text smaller for story titles so they could all fit on one line? If so, then I'm really happy with it and we can start updating the pages. Lego Whovian (talk) 09:48, October 4, 2018 (UTC) I'm perfectly happy with the smaller text. I was just going to make one further test, specifically a slightly different colour scheme: a light blue background and grey cells. I've updated the 2nd test page with the different coloured box. Once we've decided which scheme is best I'll start making templates for each of the different items and then we can roll them out. Also test page 2 has a different navigation footer, again whichever is preferred we'll use. One point though, concerning the multiple varients of items, are you happy with the idea I proposed earlier with a gallery of them on a 'master page' linking to the varients own pages? T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 15:03, October 4, 2018 (UTC) Yes, I am very happy with your idea of having a master page for each item, and linking to separate subpages for each edition. I have checked both test pages, and I much prefer the second test page with the revised colours. However, I think the navigation footer suffers from the same problem as the infobox in that it can't fit longer titles all on one line. Therefore, I suggest that the text on the footer could be in a smaller font, perhaps to match the titles on the templates? Also, when we make a subpage for each edition, would the footer link to the previous and next subpages of each edition, or the master pages for the releases? Or perhaps even the next corresponding edition of the next release? For example, would The Collection: Season 12/US link to The Collection: Season 12/UK, The Collection: Season 19, or The Collection: Season 19/US? I'd suggest the latter, as The Collection: Season 12 can link to The Collection: Season 19, and The Collection: Season 19/UK can link to The Collection: Season 12/UK. This would help collectors from different countries stay on the same editions for their country, rather than navigate through various master and subpages. Lego Whovian (talk) 10:47, October 5, 2018 (UTC) Great, I'll start making templates for all the different types then. One last thing though, the 'Other' section header I think shouldn't be left as 'Other' but I'm not sure what else to call it, any ideas? Regarding the footer, I'm not sure making it small would work, as it would somewhat mess up the pre and sub titles I think. The footer is actually the exact same one used in the current box templates, I just isolated the code and put it in it's own template. As for the linking on subpages I totally agree with your idea. What I'll do is when I've made the templates the first page I update will be the Season 12 collection so we can test your idea. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 15:27, October 5, 2018 (UTC) So I've made the first lot of infoboxes: book, CD, media, toy and comic. They all have /usage pages which gives the base code which we can copy/paste into the article pages. I've made them so they can be used for multiple types, for example the media box can be used for both DVD and VHS, you just need to use the relevant cells, e.g discs or tapes. I've also started The Collection: Season 12 master page and /UK subpage, which will give an idea what the pages will look like using the new format. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 14:37, October 7, 2018 (UTC) I've had a look at the master and sub pages for Season 12, and I think they look excellent. I like how you've merged all the home video media into one template, that should save time and effort. However, where would we put cassettes and LPs? Maybe merge them with CDs into a template Infobox/audio? The "other info" section looks fine, I think. Also, I've started working on my table for the episode list, it's not finished yet but you can check it to get the idea of what it will look like. What do you think? I'm also rearranging all the navboxes to fit within the 704px page width, which means having four or five items a row instead of six or seven. When I've finished that I'll help you update all the pages to the new format. Lego Whovian (talk) 08:16, October 11, 2018 (UTC) I believe the Season 12 pages are now finished, barring any further ideas we have. I've begun updating the Target Novels, starting with The Abominable Snowmen. Work on the reprints has brought two ideas to me, both of which we used to use in the original format. The first is categories for release years. I quite like the idea that each subpage should have a category 'Items released in year', so the S12 pages would all be 2018 for example. However I think this category should not be used on the 'master page' seeing as that technically covers all variants. It seems these categories were dropped when we moved over to the box templates, what are your thoughts on bringing them back? I have added them to the various Snowmen pages. The second idea is specific to books, the old infoboxes had a cell for the ISBN, whereas the newer box templates did not include it, should I update the Infobox/Book with a cell for the ISBN? Finally the footer section now has a proper page at Template:Footer along with a /useage page. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 15:10, October 12, 2018 (UTC) I believe I made the years category pages which were only meant to be temporary while I was updating the pages, though I agree they work well on the subpages so we can keep them. Yes, you could add the ISBN where applicable, I think that would look good. As for the footer, well it was optimised to be viewed at 1010px rather than 704px, therefore I've altered it so that the pre and sub titles are font size 1.1 instead of 4 and the titles are at 2 instead of 5. If you think this is too small I can always alter them again if you prefer? I've also finished filling in the episodes list template so I'm now going to start experimenting to see if I can alter the aesthetic to match the rest of the wiki Lego Whovian (talk) 18:18, October 16, 2018 (UTC) I do think the footer font is too small now, prehaps the values should be somewhere in between the original and these smaller values, prehaps 2 for the pre/sub titles and 3 for the title? The Abominable Snowmen master and sub pages are now complete, I've also gone through the various 'Items released in' pages and updated the links to the relevant subpages. Completing all the various sub pages has brought to my attention how many pages will now be in 'starring or written' categories, especially for the Target novels. Do you think this is a problem or is it fine? If it's a problem then prehaps only the master page should have the 'starring or written' category. The episode list template is looking good, it will be great to see it all finished. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 07:58, October 17, 2018 (UTC) Okay, I'll test out 2 for the pre/sub titles and 3 for the titles like you suggested. Not quite sure about the starring or written categories, some editions do have slightly different content, for example the UK and Australian editions of Series 7 Part 2 included The Snowmen, whereas in the US it was released separately. So as you see, I guess it could be good to keep the categories on the sub pages as some editions may have slightly different categories. Now something that I have recently just realised, is that in the old format each page would share the title of its first edition, for example, The Collection: Season 12 would be titled Tom Baker: Complete Season One because the US edition was released first; whereas for Season 19 the Australian edition will be released first, which means that its title would be The Collection: Season 19. I think that this would be incredibly confusing for new users and users from different countries therefore I propose a new naming format, in which the Season 12 page can be renamed Season 12 (Blu-ray). This means that there can be no confusion searching different countries' titles in the search box, and add the (Blu-ray) so as to show exactly what it is: A Blu-ray. This means that it cannot be confused for a VHS or a DVD box set, for example. What do you think? I'll start linking the images in the episode list template to see how it looks. Lego Whovian (talk) 10:53, October 21, 2018 (UTC) Thanks, I think with those values it should look fine. I take what you say about the categories, I'll leave them. You raise an interesting point. I'm not aware of many items that are named differently across regions quite like the S12 Blu-ray is, so it shouldn't be a major problem for us. What do you think about this idea: Instead of renaming pages, we make a redirect page named Tom Baker: Complete Season One which will lead users the The Collection: Season 12/US page. The US navboxes can link to the redirect page, and if a user searches, it will appear in the search bar. I'd rather the pages retain the 'The Collection: Season 12' name as that it what the product is actually called in the other two regions. Similarly I'd prefer The Complete First Series (DVD) instead of Series One (DVD) and so forth, seeing as that is the proper product name. I do understand what you mean though, it could be confusing to people from the US. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 15:46, October 22, 2018 (UTC) Just an update on how the Target Novels are going. I have made a page for an item that only has one release: The First Dr Who Gift Set. For items like that I suggest we only have a 'subpage' and no 'master page' as there are no other versions to link to. The updating of pages is going well and is quite simple with the new infoboxes. I've also been thinking ahead to certain DVDs/Blu-rays such as The Complete Peter Capaldi Years, or The Complete Series 1-7 which span several series. As you can see the number of episodes makes the box far to long, so I propose when we update them with the new Infoboxes, in the 'Episodes' cell we put 'Series 8' and 'Series 9' etc, and make pages for each series like we have done for the episodes, what do you think? That will take up far less space than listing every episode from Series 1-7. T-2010 | Talk to Me | Promises to aliens have no validity. 12:08, October 25, 2018 (UTC)